lauraelaine's Page

Latest Activity

I have a coop for sale that a neighbor made. I am open to any reasonable offers.Here are the details:Metal roof. Two solar lights on the front. Two carrying bars on the sides. Dimensions: 73"H x 48"W x 75" L Doorway: 24"W x 55"H…See More

"I am afraid ours died recently also. I sold my breeding pair to then woman who runs the animal programs at country gardens charter school. I also know there was a guy in Tempe who raises new Zealand rabbits, but who had a breedingpair of angoras. He…"

Profile Information

About Me:

I am a mother of two, a wife, and a database analyst with an interest in exploring ways to be more self-sufficient and use less. I have two bantam hens, four Welsh Harlequin ducks, a French Angora rabbit, a cat, and a peach-faced lovebird (caught by my cat from the local flock). My two daughters love to help with the animals.

Although I studied English and Mathematics in school, my big launch into my current interest came from several years of research at the Office of Arid Land Studies in Tucson, Arizona. There I was first introduced to the ideas of sustainability, while using satellite imagery to help ranchers, farmers, and land agencies make more informed decisions about their land. After that, I spent a year in South Africa speaking to sheep and goat farmers about their migration patterns and its effect on the land. When I got pregnant, I began to look for ways to bring these larger ideas into a home setting.

lauraelaine's Photos

Lauraelaine's Blog

So my eggs arrived in the mail today. I received 15 total eggs. I got about seven eggs under the hen when I began to wonder what I was going to with the rest. I thought of buying an incubator but even a used one on craigslist is not in our limited discretionary spending budget. So I decided to make one. I used an old lamp and made a quick run to Walmart. I bought a styrofoam cooler for $1.88, a small fan for $1.50, a thermometer for $2.00, and a glass picture frame for a window for $1.50. I… Continue

On Tuesday, I won 13+ Cochin Bantam Hatching Eggs at an Ebay auction for 18.75 (including shipping). My cochin bantam, Lemon Butter, has been sitting on her nest faithfully all summer and, since I have no roosters, I keep stealing her eggs. Because we lost two bantams to heat and one to drowning, I decided I would give her a try and see if she could actually hatch some eggs to replenish the flock. The eggs shipped yesterday (Wednesday) and should arrive on Friday.

Comment Wall (2 comments)

You need to be a member of Valley Permaculture Alliance to add comments!

Rachel: I found your posting and was going to reply, but was waiting for my new account to be approved.

The ducks are only noisy at certain times: in the morning when they want to be fed and as a warning that something is going (could be my three year old chasing them or a dog or a cat). I have one male and one female. They are the queen and king of the backyard and they boss around even my two cats and rabbit. Unlike stories I have heard of geese, however, they have never been aggressive to me or my three year old, who occasionally catches the male duck (and that is a sight to see).

I used to live in a house with just a chain link fence and one of the neighbors said to me. "I thought I heard ducks the other morning" and I had to claim them as my own, but no one has ever said anything bad to me. I don't suppose they are any louder than my hens or the mockingbirds, sparrows, or love birds that are around our neighborhood. The male and the female make a very different sound. The male has the traditional "quack" and the female makes two sounds a kind of cooing (not sure how to describe it) and kind of clicking quack. Getting them in at least a pair helps with the noise, possibly three. We had dogs attack the ducks over a year ago and lost all but one. She was terribly mournful until we found her a mate.

She was a great layer, laying faithfully every day, but recently she started to get a little broody so I indulged her and didn't take her eggs. But she is a jemima puddle-duck (see Beatrix Potter story) and a bad sitter. Finally, I had to take the eggs away because they were clearly not hatching (I candled them) and it seemed to make her more fretful than anything and make the male aggressive. Now she is either hiding her eggs really well or she is taking some time getting back into laying regularly.

The ducks are definitely fun to watch. I have one of those blue plastic pools and I move it around the yard and empty the water into different areas.

It looks like you have a pen for your chickens. That's probably best. My chickens were free range with the ducks, but when my female duck got broody the male got bored and decided to take my tiny bantams as part of his harem. One we found dead in the pool and i think he might have tried to mount her in there and accidently drowned her. The other chicken he pulled all the feathers off the neck, in an attempt to groom. So I got two new banties and I made a little house for them and put our poor remaining bantam with them. The ducks still hang around the chicken house and check on the chickens. They clearly want them to be part of their flock.

Well hope that's not too much information. Let me know if you have any other questions. Also, this site was a great help when I first start with Khaki Campbells: http://www.newagrarian.com/homestead/ducks/index.html.

Hi there-
Thanks to Jennifer for showing me your profile... I currently have hens and am hoping to get ducks. I'm aware of the 10X the mess of chickens issue, but I was wondering about the noise, I have a chain link fence between me and the neighbors and was wondering if getting a few khaki campbells would be too loud. Do you find that they make more noise then your hens?
Thanks!
Rachel